Used and worn out rubber tires from vehicles such as automobiles and the like are presently being used as an auxiliary fuel. These waste tires are charged individually into an incinerator in order to control the incinerator temperature. Delivery of a large stack of waste tires has previously required that the tires be separated manually. However, since the contact surface of waste tires is made of rubber which has a high co-efficient of friction, it is extremely difficult to slide the tires, particularly when two or more tires are in mutual contact. The work required for manual separation of the waste tires is difficult and cannot be easily performed.
In some instance, such as when waste tires are used for fuel in a calcination kiln for cement, there is a need to charge the waste tires into the incinerator continuously over a complete twenty-four hour period. As a result, supplies cannot be stockpiled and this process becomes labor intensive.
In order to resolve this problem, two prior Japanese Patent Publications have proposed systems for operation of a waste tire separating system. In Japanese Patent Publication No. 11808/1982, tires are individually separated using a stream of water. In order to deal with a large quantity of waste tires, a large pool of water is required. Moreover, the work involved in draining water to remove the water from the annular hollow space in the tires which have been separated is necessary before the individual tires can be transported to an incinerator.
In another disclosure, Japanese Patent Publication No. 11955/1988 describes a transport technique for classifying individually separated waste tires by size. This patent publication does not contain any disclosure of the method for individual separation of large quantities of stacked tires.
Accordingly, it is objection of the present invention to provide a system for facilitating the individual separation of waste tires.
More particularly, it is the object of the present invention to separate large numbers of stacked waste tires into smaller quantities or groups, to then transport them to an individually separating conveyor system.
Other objects will appear hereinafter.